Cycling: Armstrong has third victory in sight

Lance Armstrong moved another step towards a third straight Tour de France victory after rival Jan Ullrich failed to make any inroads into his comfortable lead.

The American and the 1997 winner both came in 25 minutes and 45 seconds behind stage 16-winner Jens Voigt, who outsprinted Brad McGee in the finish in Sarran.

Armstrong, of the US Postal Service team, remains five minutes and five seconds ahead of Telekom’s Ullrich in the overall standings with only four days of the gruelling race remaining.

Credit Agricole’s Voigt, who wore the yellow jersey in the opening week of this year’s Tour, took his first-ever Tour stage win as he and McGee finished almost two minutes ahead of Alexandre Botcharov and Rolf Sorensen with Luis Perez a further minute back.

Botcharov climbed into the top 20 in the overall standings and the Russian was one of the seven riders who escaped from the main group as they approached Sarran.

But it was Voigt and McGee who made the decisive break in the closing stages before the German proved the stronger.